British telco Vodafone, Kenyan telco Safaricom and Western Union announced today that they pilot a Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) service between the U.K. and Kenya. Through the service, remittances will reach Safaricom mobile subscribers in minutes.

Western Union

The service will use Western Union for processing cross-border remittances between the UK and Kenya, where 10 million people now have mobile phones.

Through MMT, consumers can send funds through select Western Union offices in the UK to any Safaricom mobile subscriber in Kenya in a matter of minutes and receivers can withdraw cash from 4,000 M-PESA agents in Kenya. They may also forward their cash to other mobile phones in Kenya.

Last year, Kenya received approximately USD1.3 billion in international remittances.

MMT builds on the success of M-PESA, a mobile money transfer service in Kenya which has served over four million customers since its launch in March 2007.

M-PESA was also set up by Vodacom and sister company Safaricom.